House of the Rising Sun
by SFPFQ
Summary: Rukia finds a guitar in Ichigo's room. Ichigo grudgingly plays the guitar for her and then...starts singing! Can be IchiRuki if you want it to be. Not an AU.


**House of the Rising Sun. Voila! **

**Quick History lesson. 'House of the Rising Sun' is an American folk song. It's occasionally called 'Rising Sun Blues' sometimes. The most successful version of this wicked musical piece was recorded by The Animals (an English rock group) in 1964. It's about a life gone wrong in New Orleans. The best versions (in my opinion) are the ones by Bob Dylan and Cat Power. **

Rukia laid impatiently in her makeshift bed in Ichigo's wardrobe, waiting for sleep to overtake her. She idlely tapped her chewed up nails against the wall, unaware that chipped sections of crimson nail polish (she had spent yesterday night around Orihime's) were rebounding off the metal and tumbling onto her bedsheets.

Ichigo gave off a soft snore, making Rukia giggle. There was the sound of shifting fabric and a grunt. He was probably moving in his sleep or something. She cracked open the sliding door of her wardrobe and peaked through, noticing that Ichigo had fallen asleep in his school clothes. He must've been tired, since it had been his turn to handle the hollows.

After a series of petty arguments and a long debate, the finally decided to make a chart for who would handle the hollows and at what times. Rukia had taken Monday evenings, Monday nights, Tuesdays, Wednesday mornings, Fridays mornings and Sunday mornings and afternoons. Ichigo had taken all of the other days.

Ichigo had agreed, although still had a small grudge about having to fight off Hollows first thing on a Monday morning. Still, Rukia had taken his exams and homework into account, so took the majority of the schedule up (since, after all, it was Rukia's job). They'd printed off two copies and hung one up in the wardrobe. Ichigo carried the spare copy in the back pocket of his jeans.

Ichigo snored again and Rukia rolled her eyes, deciding that sleep was pointless. She rolled open the door to her bed and slipped out, casually glancing around Ichigo's room. Then, in the far corner, mostly concealed by his muddy green curtains. It sat in the far corner next to his desk, a light layer of dust around it.

A guitar.

She strolled over towards it, glancing towards Ichigo to make sure he wasn't waking up any time soon. Her over-sized, baggy Chappy the Bunny pyjamas rustled with every step she took. Ichigo (who had given them to her as Christmas present) had insisted that it was necessary, since she was always stealing Yuzu's favourite Snoopy the Dog jammies. Unfortunately, the store didn't have any in the right size for her, so she found herself swamped in her Chappy attire, which was approximately three sizes too big.

She pushed the curtain aside and studied the instrument. It was a light brown acoustic, and looked like it could have been pretty expensive if not for the messy writing in black pen on the left side.

"Tooo...I..o..Ic...Ichigo," she read aloud, an annoying habit she'd developed. She squinted at the scribbled nonsense, trying to make sense of the scruffy handwriting. "Hap..Happy...Barfday? Oh, Birthday!" she exclaimed, then mentally kicked herself for shouting, stealing a glance at Ichigo. He mumbled something in his sleep, then rolled over, turning his back to her.

"F..from...damn, what does that say?" she muttered. She shrugged and moved to pick the guitar up, then chewed her bottom lip nervously. It was probably pretty special to Ichigo. He might get angry at her.

She shrugged and lifted it up anyway.

'Damn, it feels so heavy,' she thought. 'It's pretty big, too.'

She sat down, crossing her legs over and resting the acoustic guitar on her knee. She held it in a way that she had seen people in those guitar hero adverts had and experimentally strummed. It was slightly out of tune, but since Rukia had never played a guitar before, she didn't notice. She picked at each stringer, one at a time. She began to have fun picking at the strings, then pressed a few small fingers on the neck of the guitar. She messed around with that for a while, experimenting with the different sounds she could make.

"What are you doing?" a slightly husking voice grumbled. She gasped and let go of the guitar, barely noticing as it tumbled to the door and let off a ringing noise. Ichigo's propped up his torso with his elbows, his eyes still a little bleary from sleep. His hair had overgrown a bit, and was even more tousled than normal, his school clothes rumpled and wrinkled. He didn't look angry, despite his ever-lasting scowl.

"Erm...nothing," Rukia said.

Ichigo's brown eyes flicked to the guitar on the floor and he sighed, lifting his still tired, weak limbs up and strolling over, his legs clicking into place. He sat down cross-legged, opposite from Rukia. "That's the guitar Chad got me for my birthday when I was 13. He gave me a few lessons, too, but I haven't played it in ages," he laughed a bit, scratching the back of his head. He picked it up and rested it on his knee. "Must've been too caught up with all that Shinigami crap."

A vein pulsed in Rukia's forehead, but she ignored his choice of words. "Are you good?" she couldn't help but ask.

He plucked at the strings, fiddling with the knobs at the top. Rukia remembered the scene in one of the episodes of _The Mighty Boosh_, with some guy with an afro telling a monster made out of tape that his guitar needed tuning. Ichigo must be tuning the guitar, she concluded.

He smirked. "I know a bit, but I pretty much gave up kinda easily."

"Surprise, surprise," Rukia muttered.

Ichigo ignored her jibe. "I do play around with it a bit from time to time, though. It's a good stress reliever."

Rukia thought about how she'd completely lost track of time and her surroundings moments before, completely caught up in her strumming. She inclined her head in agreement.

"Play me something," she insisted.

"Nah," he teased, making to get up and go back to bed. She grabbed his arm with her death grip, poking her thumb on a pressure point in his forearm.

"Ow!" he whined, his knees buckling. "That hurts." She knew he was just play acting.

"I said," she whispered threateningly, "play me a tune."

"Tch, whatever," he coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'bitch'. She narrowed her eyes.

"Bastard," she muttered, then focused her almighty fake and sugary smile in his direction.

He shook his head and strummed a bit, experimenting with the feel of the guitar (since he hadn't used it in a while). He then began to play a slightly depressing intro, which Rukia tapped her fingernails to on the rough carpet.

"This is called...erm...what's it called again?" Ichigo stopped playing and tapped his chin in thought. "Oh yeah! House of the Rising Sun! No one really knows who it was originally by. People say it came out of the slave trade, y' know? The lyrics have changed a lot over the years."

Rukia punched him in the face. "Idiot! Why'd you stop playing? I was enjoying that!"

Ichigo raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, chill! I was just giving you a little history lesson!"

Rukia rolled her eyes and Ichigo sighed, beginning his intro again. Her eyes widened as Ichigo opened his mouth, and a slightly raspy, bluesy, but pretty emotional voice flowed out. Rukia couldn't see his face, since he was staring intently down at the guitar to make sure he got all of the strings right.

**(Cat Power's version was what I was listening to when I was looking up the lyrics. Despite Cat Power being a girl, she sings it pretty much the exact same way as I imagined Ichigo singing this)**

"There is a house in New Orleans  
They call the Rising Sun  
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy  
And God I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor  
She sewed my new bluejeans  
My father was a gamblin' man  
Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs  
Is a suitcase and trunk  
And the only time he's satisfied  
Is when he's on a drunk"

He strummed a short guitar solo. Rukia closed her eyes, fiddling with the carpet.

"Oh mother tell your children  
Not to do what I have done  
Spend your lives in sin and misery  
In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform  
The other foot on the train  
I'm goin' back to New Orleans  
To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans  
They call the Rising Sun  
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy  
And God I know I'm one"

He finished, and both Ichigo and Rukia looked into each other's eyes, a sense of deep understanding between the two. The silence stretched onwards.

"That's the biggest piece of crap I've ever heard," Rukia finally snorted.

"That's what I said about Chappy."

**I'll leave Rukia's method of torture up to your imagination. :) **

**Just something I scribbled down on a boring Sunday afternoon. I was fiddling with my really out of tune guitar (which has a string missing that seriously needs to be replaced) and surfing random stuff on the net when I noticed this discussion about Ichigo having a guitar in his room, which I've never noticed before. It's funny, though, because I've always pegged him as the guitar playing kind of guy.**  
**I really wish I could bring myself out of my lazy Sunday afternoon state of mind to do spellcheck and all that. Sozzers if there's any mistakes. :P**  
**SFPFQ **

**P.S. Review? Pretty please? **


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